The American Peregrine lander will not be able to land on the Moon (4 photos)

There is a possibility that, due to problems, the device will not even reach the orbit of the Earth’s satellite and will perish in space.





The private lunar landing module Peregrine, launched on Monday from Cape Canaveral, will definitely not be able to land on the moon due to a critical fuel leak. The developer company Astrobotic Technology announced this on the social network X (formerly Twitter). The mission did not go well from the very beginning - just a few hours after launch, the device took the wrong position in relation to the Sun.

As representatives of Astrobotic Technology write, the fuel leak occurred due to problems with the propulsion system. The published photo from the external camera of the module shows damage to the multilayer insulation.



Astrobotic Technology hopes that the device will be able to at least enter lunar orbit in order to conduct at least some scientific research. The Peregrine propulsion system no longer works, but the side maneuvering engines are functioning, thanks to which it is possible to receive energy from the Sun. To do this, the auxiliary engines need to keep the device in a stable position for another 40 hours.

"Peregrine's current goal is to get as close to the Moon as possible before it loses its ability to orient itself to the Sun and, as a result, cannot recharge itself," Astrobotic Technology said.





The module was launched using United Launch Alliance's (ULA) new heavy-duty Vulcan launch vehicle from the 41st launch pad of the US Space Force at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 02:18 U.S. East Coast time (10:18 Moscow time)

Let us add that, in addition to five NASA scientific instruments and cargo from a number of international partners of the mission, a stone from Everest and memorial capsules of the Celestis ritual company with the ashes and DNA of the creator of “Star Trek” Gene Roddenberry, several actors from the original series, and also four US presidents - George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.



The Peregrine lander has a payload of 90 kg.

Peregrine is the first American spacecraft designed to fly to the Moon, created in the United States in the last 50 years. Astrobotic Technology has developed a lander for NASA's Artemis lunar program. It is assumed that such modules will be used to deliver NASA experimental equipment and other payloads to the Moon.